Dive into the chaotic and beautiful love that parents feel for their kids. Explore how this love can skew our perceptions and drive us a little crazy. The discussion draws parallels to the journey of Siddhartha, highlighting how fatherhood transforms us in unexpected ways. It’s about the intense emotions, irrational joys, and the profound challenges that come with loving someone so deeply. Love may make us feel mad, but it also enriches our lives in incredible ways.
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insights INSIGHT
Parental Bias
Our love for our children creates inherent biases, making us irrational.
This irrationality, driven by love, is a natural and acceptable aspect of parenthood.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Siddhartha's Transformation
In Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, the protagonist's pursuit of enlightenment is transformed by fatherhood.
He experiences newfound emotions, described as a "strongest and strangest passion."
insights INSIGHT
The Dual Nature of Parental Love
Children bring about a unique form of love that can be both challenging and rewarding.
While causing suffering, it ultimately uplifts and enriches our lives.
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Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha" is a philosophical novel that follows the spiritual journey of a young man named Siddhartha Gautama. The story explores themes of self-discovery, enlightenment, and the search for meaning beyond material possessions. Siddhartha's experiences with various aspects of life, including sensuality, asceticism, and worldly pursuits, lead him to a deeper understanding of himself and the universe. The novel's evocative prose and profound insights into the human condition have resonated with readers for generations. Hesse's exploration of spiritual awakening and the interconnectedness of all things makes "Siddhartha" a timeless classic.
Sometimes it’s good to acknowledge our biases. And one of the biggest biases in our lives is our kids. Not just a bias in the sense that we prefer them, but a bias like one of those ones that cognitive behavioral scientists point out that prove we’re totally and utterly irrational.
We love our kids and love makes us crazy. It is irrational. And that’s okay. In Herman Hesse’s beautiful novel Siddhartha, the titular character—who had spent his whole life in the solitary pursuit of enlightenment—suddenly finds himself a father. This changes him. Makes him feel all sorts of things he had never felt before, feelings that, in many ways, he had denied and pushed away for so long as part of his journey.
“He was madly in love, a fool because of love,” Hesse writes of Siddhartha, but also of you and every other parent who’s ever lived. “Now he always experienced belatedly, for once in his life, the strongest and strangest passion; he suffered tremendously through it and yet was uplifted, in some way renewed and richer.”
The Daily Dad 